NZ-born Carl Stafford raped woman after being given 'one last chance' in Australia

A New Zealand-born citizen broke into a woman's house and brutally raped her two years after successfully appealing a decision to cancel his Australian visa. Photo/Getty Images

A New Zealand immigrant broke into a house and brutally raped a woman two years after he beat a deportation order.

New Zealand-born Carl Stafford, 42, had his Australian visa cancelled in 2013 because he had a "substantial criminal record" and had been sentenced to more than 12 months in jail, according to Daily Mail.

Stafford, who was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia when he was 3, was then allowed to stay in Australia after an Administrative Appeals Tribunal senior member was satisfied the visa should not have been cancelled and Stafford pledged "I will not let you down".

But in 2015, Stafford broke into a house in St Kilda, south Melbourne, and raped a woman over a 45-minute period before she managed to break-free, the Herald Sun reported.

Stafford confessed to the horrifying attack and is due to be sentenced in June.

It came despite Stafford telling the AAT while appealing his visa cancellation that "I know this is the last chance".

"I'm too old to keep offending," Stafford said when asked why he should be given another chance to stay in Australia.

"I have accommodation, job, counselling, girlfriend, psychiatric care. If I can stay, I will not let you down. Dad's crook. Don't want to lose him. I want him to be proud of me."

AAT senior member John Handley said in his ruling in 2013 that what Stafford said "will inevitably be read back to him, if he reoffends and if he decides to contest an application in the future to cancel his visa".

"Those words will also come back to haunt him and if he is to be taken on trust, as I do, I would expect that he would not be so foolish to re-offend," the ruling said.

Stafford was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia with his mother when he was aged 3.

He told the AAT how he 'lived with his mother in a house which she also used for prostitution' and that "his circumstances were never brought to the attention of any welfare agencies".

In his ruling, Mr Handley found that "had child welfare agencies intervened, the applicant's drug abuse and offending from an early age may not have eventuated".

"Much of his offending was impulsive and connected with his poor mental health," the ruling said.

"The Australian community should bear some responsibility for the absence of intervention and should not, in my view, dismiss the applicant by returning him to his place of birth.

"On balance I am satisfied that the applicant should be entitled to remain in Australia. I do not think that he has forfeited the privilege of continuing to hold a visa nor do I think that the risk of future harm is unacceptable."

In 2004, Stafford was also issued with a Notice of Intention to Cancel his visa but "he and others close to him were able to satisfy the immigration minister's delegate... that he should not be removed from Australia".